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Monday, August 18, 2014

Did You (also) Believe these Myths about Content Marketing?

Content marketing allows businesses to connect with prospects and
customers. Content marketing is hot and buzzing in the marketing world.
Everyone is talking about content marketing. Content marketing is the gasoline
for your social media marketing efforts ----Arrrrghh…you have heard all of this
but still we all do know that it’s a fairly new phenomenon and it’s quite
natural that there are quite a few misconceptions around content marketing –
how to do it, what makes it more effective and what are the best practices.

At our
agency, Midas Touch, we work with
several businesses, in various industry verticals, and assist them with their
content marketing efforts. Through our learning of last few years, we thought
of listing some common myths about Content Marketing and also provide some
rational explanation around those.

Myth 1: Blogs
are the only ‘valid’ form of content

Undoubtedly,
blogs are important. They can definitely serve as backbone to your content
marketing strategy. Blogs are also excellent medium to communicate with your
target audience. But don’t commit the mistake of thinking of blogs as only
valid form of content.

Don’t forget to incorporate other equally important
forms of content in your strategy. These could include – eNewsletters, videos,
case studies, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics, podcasts, webinar recordings
or even memes! Such nuggets of content can be very effective in reaching out to
your target audience through various social media platforms.

Myth 2:
Anyone can write, so anybody can handle content marketing

Finding good
writers is key to your content marketing strategy. Don’t go for the lowest

bidder because low cost can have a serious impact on quality. Good quality
content writing requires not only language skills but also business senses,
creativity and domain understanding.

Myth 3: Content
marketing is same as SEO or Social Media

SEO used to
be heavily dependent on the content aka keywords. But not anymore. Now search
engines have started giving heavy importance to answers to specific questions
and therefore the quality and depth of the content is more important than
keyword stuffing. Undoubtedly, high quality content will definitely help in the
organic searches for your website but don’t base your content marketing
strategy based on SEO requirements. Similarly, social media should be used as a
tool to disseminate the content to right target audience and remember, if you
don’t have content, you won’t be able to share anything on social media.

Myth 4: Content
Marketing does not have any direct RoI

Depends on
your definition of RoI. Good quality content is a very effective way to engage with your target audience. Conversations
are also valid Return on the Investment of sharing the content. You get more
brand awareness, customer connection, customer retention, and customer loyalty.
And these, and more such factors, are not quantifiable in numbers and therefore
can be construed as “no ROI”. Every
piece of content is different and based on the intent. The content which is
written for sharing and commenting cannot be used for lead generation – that’s
a grossly wrong use of content.

Myth 5: Content
marketing is about Your Products/ Services

In fact, it
is NOT about your products and services. Your brochure and other collateral is
not content marketing. Well, content marketing has to be about and related to
your business but it cannot be 100% about your business – then you are doing
injustice in the name of content marketing. Today, people are searching for
solutions to their problems. If your content offers them that, then you have a
winner in hand. Try to provide educational and thought leadership content which
will establish you as expert in your field and establish your image of a
trusted partner.

Did I miss
any? Drop a comment and I will include it in this article – with credits to
you! :-)